


What Do We Do Now?--The After The Snap Job

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Leverage, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Crossover, Drama, Multi, Rare Pairings, after the snap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-13 06:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20169751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: Various scenarios on what could have happened after the Snap in the Marvel-verse. Takes place way after season five of Leverage.





	1. Parker and Nate

**Author's Note:**

> I am not sure if this has occurred in other fandoms, but I decided to write what would happen in the Leverage-verse if the Snap happened. Who would have been left, and how they would cope. I structured them to show right before it happened and five years later, just before things changed. Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame just in case you haven't seen them. No characters from the Marvelverse, only mentioned in passing. I've used pairings, trying to pair up people who are not canonically paired together.

Chapter One—Parker and Nate

The scream that she heard from the next room pierced the quiet that she had worked to establish over the last few hours. They had just finished a job the night before, wondering if there would be some cleanup to do going forward.

Parker was worried. Damn worried. She had heard rumors flitting around that something big was going down. Eliot had put feelers out and Hardison was tracking some “crazy-ass shit” in the atmosphere. And here all Parker could do was worry about their last job.

Their pub never had a sign of any trouble before. Eliot had seen to that right after they moved to Portland. Criminals took their trade elsewhere. The neighborhood was quiet and nice, even with the near-constant rain lately.

It better not be that new waitress, Parker thought as she pushed the doors open to pub portion of their little establishment. Amy stood motionless, a plate precariously perched on her arm, another one on the floor. So many tiny little pieces. Why couldn’t they use plastic? Not classy, Hardison had said. Not earth-friendly, Eliot had reiterated. 

Her eyes went wide as she saw a person at the table closest to her just vanish. Like vanish as in fade to ashes vanish. Another plate crashed to the ground. Another person vanished into thin air. Not waiting on an explanation, Parker ran to the kitchen to find Eliot. He’d know, she thought. He knew about all sorts of crap that went on in the world that she really did not want to know about, ever.

Only when she swung the door open, all she could see was Eliot’s arm disappearing in front of her eyes. The last word on his lips was her name. Nothing was left. Nothing. One of the cooks also vanished in the blink of an eye.

“No,” she yelled. “Hardison.”

Instead of waiting yet again, she ran as fast as she could to the back, hoping that he would know what was going on. She made it three steps to the back before noticing the same thing was happening to Hardison. The words “I’m sorry” would be forever etched into her brain.

Amy came charging to the back, shaking like a leaf.

“They’re gone. Just gone. What’s going on?”

Parker turned Hardison’s computer around, reading quickly what he had found about today’s events. All she could make out were space invasion, part of Africa in shambles, Avengers possibly dead. What? They were supposed to protect them. Her team protected people against human bad guys. The Avengers protected them from space bad guys.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, startling her out of her silence. She didn’t even notice who the caller might be.

“What the hell is going on? Where’s Hardison? Parker? Talk to me.”

Nate. It was Nate. Nate’s still here.

“We, I, he’s gone. He’s gone, Nate. Eliot too. Where’s Sophie? Nate, where’s Sophie?”

“She’s gone. She was right there, right in front of me, complaining about something. I don’t even know. She vanished. I just, I need to know what’s going on.”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to get them back. Do you understand? This isn’t real. I’m gonna wake up tomorrow. They’re gonna be by my side. Please tell me this isn’t real?”

Amy cautiously sat down beside Parker, taking a hand in hers.

“It’s real,” Amy replied.

**Five years later:**

“What are we looking at?”

“I’ve got at least five, no six, dammit, looks like dozens of blips appearing out of nowhere. Shit, this is a full-scale invasion.”

Amy was right, Parker thought. Another invasion from space. Maybe this time they’d be finished for good.

“What can we do?” Nate asked.

“Nothing,” Parker replied. “We don’t have any superpowers. We just have to wait.”

“What, wait like we did last time? How many more people have to die?”

They’d done their best to keep to the job at hand these past five years. New bad guys popped up all the time, taking advantage of the decreased population, prey on people who had been injured or left destitute from loved ones just vanishing long ago. In Parker’s mind, it was so long ago. Just yesterday, she thought she smelled Eliot’s pancakes, thought she got a whiff of Hardison’s cologne, thought she saw a woman fitting Sophie’s description walk down the sidewalk in front of her. All ghosts.

“Well, I’m all up for kicking some ass,” Quinn chimed in, gathering his jacket to leave.

“Not going anywhere, folks. Government has put us on lockdown.”

Tara was right. No matter what they could do as humans, there was no way they could get involved with this battle. They were on the sidelines until further notice.

“Hey, what about that guy you know. What’s his name? Works for the government.”

Tara glared at Amy but picked up her phone to make some calls.

Things had changed at Leverage. Parker would never say for the better because this ragtag, dysfunctional group was even worse than the first team. They argued more than the original five had. At least Nate had stopped drinking, but it made him more irritable and a bastard. Tara disappeared for days on end, only to come back with some trinket, she wouldn’t tell them where she was. Quinn got into more bar fights than a human could get into on an average day. Amy was always glued to that damn laptop, sometimes not coming up for air unless Parker cut the power to the building.

The Brew Pub was no more, not having someone who could actually run it. It was just a vacant storefront, much like the rest of the block had become. No one in their right mind came near this block since Nate had set a few boobytraps to warn away anyone who didn’t know the way. And here Sophie thought that Nate had turned sadistic when he was sober. Drunk, reckless Nate was even more of a handful than he was that second year they were together. Parker had given him an ultimatum: either get sober or she walks. It actually worked. Not without pain and suffering, but with time, he was a tee totaler. 

The jobs were bigger, bolder, more reckless now that they didn’t have Sophie to reign Nate back in. They sometimes missed things since Amy’s hacking skills weren’t on par with Hardison’s. Parker had given up her leadership of the team almost immediately, spending most of her time attempting to get her guys back. That had lasted more than a year until Nate had finally yelled at her that they weren’t coming back. Parker had appealed to everyone she could find. Everyone had lost loved ones.

She ached inside at night, wondering what the purpose for going on was, even when Nate would pull her back in with some scheme, some plan he had cooked up all those sleepless nights he spent just thinking. When did he sleep, Parker wondered? A few times, she’d laced his drink with some kind of sleep aid. Then she would sit beside him, just to make sure he was still breathing. She couldn’t let him die on her. He was the only one left that understood her. The others were alright, but he was the only one who understood what she needed even if he didn’t understand how to live in this new world that had been created after the snap.

The others hadn’t said a word when Nate moved into the back with her. Quinn had joked once, earning a fist to the face, courtesy of Nate. Parker wanted Quinn to understand that this was for the best so that she could keep on eye on their wayward mastermind, make sure he ate and slept and didn’t step on anyone else’s toes while they did their damn jobs.

Quinn should talk, Parker thought, since he was either holed up with Tara, which made it so much harder to work with the both of them, or breaking Amy’s heart time and time again. The man was a freaking idiot, but they needed him for the job. He wasn’t as good as Eliot but was good enough in addition to both Nate and Tara helping round out their fighting force. It was amazing how much better shape Nate was in when he wasn’t burying himself inside a bottle.

Everyone wandered off from Amy’s hunched over form at the computer. At least they had electricity. The fluctuations lately were driving Parker bonkers. Instead of staring a hole in Amy’s back, she decided that it would be better to get some rest. Nate was just looking too itchy like he was ready for a fight.

“Nate, let’s go.”

“We should wait.”

“This has happened a number of times. Not like we’re gonna find out any time soon what’s up. Go rest or drink or whatever it is the two of you do up there.”

Parker wanted to growl back at Tara, tell her to mind her own business, but the weariness in her bones made her just turn and grab Nate to come with her.

Nate paced the floor for a while but finally settled down next to her, helping her down onto the bed with a pillow behind her back. It was getting so hard to get comfortable. Only time would ease her back problems.

“I’m too old for this shit.”

“Language.”

“Fuck that.”

“Nate.”

“Have you thought about what I said?”

Parker’s mind had gone onto other things, like if she was going to get enough sleep that night or any other night.

“Yeah, you retired once before. How did that work out for you?”

“This is different.”

“How so?”

It was quiet, too quiet outside. Sure, there were people that lived in the neighborhood, but it wasn’t bustling as it had been five years before. Most people stayed away from them unless they needed help. 

“We should go stay in Wyoming. Like we said.”

Yes, like they’d dreamed about for the last three years. It was Eliot’s old place, off the grid. It was still there. It could work. Quinn even had one of his buddies check the place out. Nothing had been taken from it. Everything was functional. It was a good safe house, a place to lay low. They were going to need a place to lay low very, very soon.

Tara had already told them that once things changed, that she was out. Her fingers tended to itch like she wanted to steal things just for the fun of it. Parker had given that up a long time ago. The only thing that itched was her belly.

“Before or after?” Nate asked as he settled beside her.

“After.”

“I can, you know, manage.”

“Oh hell no, Nate. We already talked about this.”

Nate sighed. “I know.”

“I just don’t know about Amy. Quinn is such an ass.”

“That government job is just waiting. She’ll be alright.”

Things were going to change. Too fast, too much, but they had to change.

“We could go to London,” Parker mentioned as she settled down more into the pillow.

“It’s too late to travel.”

“I know.”

Parker was thankful that Nate hadn’t been too much of a bastard that day. He was trying. He wasn’t succeeding, but at least he was finally trying. One step at a time. No drinking had taken a year. Being a bastard and a pain would take a lot longer.

“You have to promise me something. Just lay off being such an ass.”

“Oh, here we go again.”

They had this argument more times than she could count.

“For me. For us. This is not going to work unless…”

Parker could feel Nate’s warmth on her arm and shoulder. He was so bad at comfort, at needing someone, at relationships in general. Not like she was any better telling him what she needed.

“We can just finish that one job. Then we’ll be done.”

“Yeah, that’s what you said last month.”

“Yeah, well, if they’re invading again, it might not matter what we do.”

Every single muscle in Parker’s body tensed up.

“Tell me again why we did this?”

“You sure you don’t want Quinn.”

“Really? Seriously? We’re having this conversation again. This is our last chance.”

Every time they had this conversation, she and Nate would argue, he would start drinking and she would be alone for days on end.

“Listen, I never told you,” Nate started, voice getting lower and softer. “We tried. For a few years. Even did a few things to make it happen. Sophie, she was sad. She would have been great at it. You know that. Dealing with the three of you.”

“Weird,” Parker told him as she turned to her side. 

“I know.”

“She was not my mother. More like a big sister. I know you miss her. I miss the guys. Ok, pity party done for the night. If I have to get up ten times during the night, I really want to put in some quality sleep time now.”

Nate’s hand rested on her stretched stomach, feeling around for movement.

“And if you do that, she’ll never let me rest. Nate,” Parker whined.

“It’s not my fault. She’s your daughter.”

“Now she’s doing summersaults on my bladder.”

Slowly sitting up, with Nate’s help, Parker levered herself up and out of the bed. She abruptly stopped when she heard Amy screaming her name downstairs.

“What the fuck? Does she ever stop?”

Nate sighed behind her.

“Parker, Nate. Now.”

“We’ve been summoned.”

“I wish she would just learn to walk up the stairs.”

As Parker slowly made her way down the stairs, Nate’s phone started to buzz, but he ignored it, not knowing the number on the screen as he always did. All Parker could hear was oh my god coming from Amy. This better be serious, Parker thought. She had to pee again.

“What’s the problem…”

Parker stopped talking when she saw what she thought was familiar hair. It must be a trick. This cannot be happening.

“What the hell happened to my Brew Pub?”

Quinn instinctively drew a weapon, aiming it at the intruder. Tara had grabbed the closest object she could find to defend them. Parker wanted to tell her to put down the sharp knife that had been sitting on the counter where Amy had used it last to cut up her apple, but she was thinking that it might be a good idea to figure this out before telling the others to disarm themselves. It didn’t surprise her that Nate had stepped directly in front of her though.

“You are not real,” Amy demanded

“What? What the hell do you mean I’m not real? Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”

“Just, y’all, did y’all redecorate or something because it’s dusty as hell out there.”

Hardison stood directly in front of them, scratching his head. Eliot still had on the apron he used in the kitchen when he was cooking. They were dressed in the exact same way they were when they disappeared.

“Oh, we have guests. Tara, Quinn. No one tells me anything.”

Nate’s phone kept buzzing while the rest of them stood there with their mouths open. There was noise outside in the dining area now, worrying Parker. Nate nodded to Quinn to check out what was happening while the others literally huddled in front of her.

“You gonna answer that Nate? Wait, weren’t you in New York with Sophie?”

Parker watched as Nate looked down at his phone, not knowing the number that was calling. That annoying buzzing sound finally stopped when he pressed the button.

“Nate, oh thank god it’s you. You will not believe what just happened.”

“Sophie?”

This was crazy. They couldn’t just have reappeared out of thin air. They were gone. She had watched them go. Every single person she had spoken with in the world after the snap said they would never come back. What had happened to change that?

Instead of pushing her way to the front of the group, Parker clutched her belly and cried.

“Nate, where are you?” she could hear Sophie’s voice off in the distance.

“Not now,” Nate replied to Parker.

“What do you mean not now?” Sophie answered, not knowing what was now starting to happen.

“Yes, now.”

“Fuck,” Nate cursed.

“Yeah, well,” Tara started. “That’s the problem.”

Nate’s glare made Tara roll her eyes. “You should talk.”

“Are we seriously gonna start that again?”

“Parker, you alright, babe?”

No, she wasn’t alright. No, she was pissed, sad, dumbfounded, in a considerable amount of pain caused by one person in the room who was now holding onto her arm to support her. Or maybe it was to support him since the other was holding his phone limply in the other.

“Parker.”

“What Eliot?”

“Need a hospital?”

“Possibly.”

“Whoa. What? Ok, I disappeared for like a few minutes and you’re pregnant?”

“Five years. You were gone for five years.”

Both Eliot and Hardison looked at each other, bewildered.

“Five years?” Parker could hear Sophie screech on the other end of the line. “Wait? Parker? You’re pregnant?”

“And about to give birth apparently,” Nate stated the obvious. “You need to breathe, Parker. Remember.”

“Oh, I remember,” she grumped back at him.

Leaning into Nate, tears started to fall. The pain of both was almost too much for her. Damn pregnancy hormones.

“You were gone. Just, you were gone. There was no way for you to come back.”

“Oh. Oh. Ohhhhhh my,” was Hardison’s answer.

“Nate? Is Parker alright? Listen, I’m not sure when I can get there.”

Sophie was stuck in New York City until they could figure out how to retrieve her.

“Sophie, hold on. I’ll find you a place to stay. Just hold on,” Tara finally took charge.

“Parker, did you get married? Who, what on earth is going on?”

“Well…”

“Soph, looks like it’s complicated,” Eliot responded. 

Another pain hit, doubling her over. Talking wasn’t going to happen in the near future. She had to concentrate on the matter at hand.

“Ok, Parker. We have to go. Guys, now is not a good time.”

It took another twelve hours for Parker to finally give birth, but she was relieved once it was over. Instead of there being tears of joy at the birth of her child, they were mixed with tears of anguish of what could have been. She’d made a new life, had built something out of the ashes of her best friends and lovers to make a life for herself, which included Nate in the starring role. Now it was all up in the air. As tiny, deep blue eyes looked up at her, Parker knew that this was what she had to concentrate on. Their complicated relationships with each other would have to be reformed. Nate had a wife now. She had Hardison and Eliot. Did they still have each other?

“This is not… I mean I don’t know…”

“You saved me, Nate. I wouldn’t, I couldn’t go on. If you haven’t done what you did…”

“I’d be dead in a ditch somewhere. How am I going to tell her?”

“If you want, to go back to her. I mean, we’re not married now, are we?”

“I don’t know.”

Instead of running, instead of walking out on her and leaving her to deal with all of this, Nate scooted her over and curled up next to her, taking his daughter’s tiny fingers in his.

“Oh god, this is so fucked up.”

“Language,” Parker whispered back.


	2. Sophie and Eliot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophie and Eliot are the only ones left.

Chapter Two—Sophie and Eliot

“Sophie, get to the safehouse. Now.”

“Eliot, he just vanished. One moment he was there, the next minute, gone.”

Just what Eliot had thought. It had started happening about ten minutes before. At least half the people on the block just vanished before his eyes as he was walking down the street. The job they were involved in was a complicated one, but Parker had solved their last issue. They were in the home stretch. Eliot needed the breather. He also did not like what was going on by some of the reports he had been hearing from his buddies in the military. Something big was going down, which was exactly what he had texted Nate about an hour ago.

“Parker, please respond. Soph, I gotta find them. Just go.”

“But I can’t leave him.”

“Soph, he’s gone. Just do as I say. We’ll regroup. Hardison? Dammit, Hardison?”

A few cars up ahead had crashed into each other, a baby left alone crying in the back seat. Opening the door, he handed the child off to the nearest bystander and told them to call 911. The person looked trustworthy, but he didn’t have the time to check it out. 

It took another ten minutes before he was back at their temporary office they had set up in Chicago for the job. Sophie and Nate were visiting, checking out the sites and doing a little consulting for a local museum. It had been a reunion of sorts, a few nights of long dinners, a movie night, and reminiscing. It was nice. Now was not so nice.

“Soph, now. Remember where we first met?”

“That alley?”

“No, Hardison’s penthouse? Get there, now. Be careful.”

“Just hurry.”

It took him a few hours to traipse across the city to Hardison’s place, but he made it before it turned midnight. Sophie sat in front of the television, scene after scene being described as a nightmare. Planes coming down, cars crashing, people dying, people disappearing. As far as Eliot could tell, after the first incident, no one else had disappeared. Maybe that part was over. The city was on lockdown though, with National Guard troops patrolling. One of the reasons why it took him so long to get there. He had to avoid their patrols.

“How’d you get in?”

Sophie held up a pin, dropping it back to the glass table where a half drank bottle of wine sat. The glass that had been poured was now sitting sideways on the ground, wine stain forming where it had spilled out. The ring that had formed on the floor and table would drive Hardison crazy, Eliot thought. But he wasn’t there to bitch and moan about his place being disrespected. And Parker wasn’t there to groan and tell them to behave. Nate wasn’t there to smirk at their antics and sarcastically reply that it was all Eliot’s fault, even though it wasn’t. It clearly wasn’t. He’d drink too if he wasn’t going to have to bail on Sophie in a few hours.

“Soph, I gotta go.”

“What?” she growled out, a look of astonishment on her face.

“Vance. It’s a code black. You don’t know.”

“I don’t know? I watched my husband vanish into thin air right in front of me. He turned to nothing. I didn’t even get to say goodbye. Whatever, whoever caused this needs to be taken care of. We have to get them back.”

“We can’t. Listen, Soph. This is going to be hard to understand.”

Sophie stood directly in front of him now, fists clenched in fury.

“The only thing that I need to understand right now is where is the son of a bitch who did this.”

“I wasn’t going to tell you this.”

Sophie’s hand connected with his cheek hard, bringing him out of his melancholy. He was just operating on one cylinder before. Now he could feel his blood start to boil. Whether it was because of what she’d just done or the fact that he should have been just as mad as she was didn’t matter. He grabbed her hand to make her be still and not hit him again.

“Then tell me. Make me understand.”

“There was a battle.”

“You think that maybe we lost?”

Irony was never lost on Sophie.

“We did. Some despot millions of miles away decided that he’d take care of his story of overpopulation. So, he set out to make that happen. I’m not getting the whole story, but from what I’ve heard, he finally succeeded.”

“I thought we were protected. Stark and his buddies were supposed to protect us.”

“Stark’s gone.”

“Son of a bitch.”

Sophie sat down with a thud.

“No, I mean he’s literally not around. I guess he went after the guy, thing, alien, whatever. Outer space. They invaded.”

“So, it was true.”

“Yeah. Racked up a huge body count. I lost some good friends out there.”

“I lost my husband.”

“I lost my whole world.”

Eliot sat down beside Sophie, wondering if he could tell her with his words what he was now feeling. He and the other two had formed some kind of bond that he couldn’t begin to describe. He knew her feelings about Nate. It was written across both their faces for years. Eliot didn’t quite understand it all, why the two of them had been drawn to each other at the beginning. But he did understand that love was love and sometimes you didn’t get to choose who you loved, no matter the consequences.

“What are we going to do?”

**Five years later:**

“That was horrible.”

“No, it was not. You are just not a good judge of character.”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Are not.”

Sophie intertwined her hand with his. His limp was not as noticeable now with the physical therapy that she made him do. She had turned into quite the nursemaid. He didn’t complain when she once wore the outfit, outdated that it was.

Eliot wasn’t sure why they had decided to stay in Chicago. Maybe it was because that was where both of them had found themselves those many years ago, in that stinking alley, Sophie fresh-faced from the most horrible performance she had ever given. At least she’d gotten a little better over the years. He still remembered her glowing cheeks, Nate’s pink-tinged ears, his shuffling feet as he asked her to join their crazy crusade. Eliot had voted no on her joining them. No. He was so glad that he was wrong and outvoted. So glad.

The last five years had been difficult. Sophie had shut down more times than not, had decided that she was retired for good. No more grifting, although she did still lift wallets here and there, putting them back before anyone noticed. Her little theatre group kept her sane, especially those long weeks when Eliot would be gone. He’d tell her all about it once he came back, but leaving as quickly as he did, he never told her when he’d be back. Working for the government was challenging at best. Vance had promised him that it would only be once or twice. Those turned into once or twice a month. He thought he had cuts and bruises working with his team. The last time he went out, he was shot, several times. Now all he could do was sit on the sidelines. Something big was going down. All he could do was wait for the outcome, whether it be domination or destruction. He most definitely wasn’t going to tell Sophie anything about this one. She had enough on her plate.

The air in Chicago was clearer, that was for sure, without as many people populating it. Many parts were still abandoned, although there was an initiative to reopen a few streets that had been closed off after the riots had taken place. Eliot had thought about taking Sophie and running to the most remote place on Earth he could think of, but she was not having that at all. They stayed and built a life. It wasn’t perfect, but it was necessary. They had other things to think about. Important things.

“We should get back.”

“It’s late.”

“Very late.”

It had taken a few years for Sophie to even come to him for comfort. He understood what she was going through. He had always understood her, even before the Snap. That comfort had settled them both. It was still a work in progress, but lately, they had gotten closer. He just wondered if they were going to make it permanent.

The smell of her perfume filled his nose and his mind, chasing away the demons of the past if just for a few minutes of time. Parker never wore perfume, opting for fruity shampoo and clean soap. Hardison had his various colognes, but nothing overpowering. Eliot had kept a few samples of each if just to be nostalgic on that one day a year he could be. Sophie said she couldn’t afford to be nostalgic, but she was every single damn day. She just didn’t call it that. She called it living life to the fullest.

The first time they had kissed, long after the Snap (years, if he was counting), both had been in a very bad place, nightmares filling their dreams sometimes nightly. If Eliot had to admit it, the kiss had been awful. And a bit of a shock. Sophie was in no shape to ever go any further right at that time. Neither was he, but that was mostly emotionally not ready. If the past six months were any indication, maybe she’d finally take the leap.

He heard that low moan she’d do when he deepened the kiss, when her hand would come up to the nape of his hair, tug just enough to make him sit up and take notice. He often wondered if that was a practiced maneuver that she had done countless times on marks. Or on Nate. Shit, he had to stop thinking the way he was. Nate was gone. He wasn’t. It was a ghost of epic proportions that stood between them.

The elevator opened to their floor, the quiet ding telling him it was time to open that door and be back to reality. He kind of liked this reality, but right now, just standing there with one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met, he’d take that reality too.

“Something bothering you?” Sophie asked as he unlocked the door.

Only the door was already unlocked. What the hell?

“Eliot,” Sophie said behind him, noticing that he was now on alert. “No.”

“Get behind me.”

“Just be careful.”

No one knew where they lived except close friends. There was a state-of-the-art security system installed, in addition to a safe room, which he had built the moment they decided to stay in Chicago.

“I have to make sure.”

“I know.”

He knew she was worried. He definitely understood why. He was too.

“Hey.”

Shit, Eliot almost had a heart attack at the sound of that voice. He swore later that his heart just stopped beating for a few seconds, then literally felt like it was coming out of his chest once it did. It had to be a joke or a con or something other than what he was seeing.

“What’d you do to my place? Is this a joke or something? These most definitely do not belong here.”

Hardison held up a small doll in one hand and an empty juice box in the other.

“Hardison?” Sophie quietly said behind Eliot.

“Soph? Hey, girlfriend.”

“Who’s that?” Now Eliot’s heart did stop. “You have some explaining to do, Eliot. There’s a room with a small child. Yay big, likes princess stuff.”

Eliot could feel the heat from Sophie’s hand on his shoulder.

“Go check on her.”

“But we… I don’t understand.”

Eliot’s phone lit up, but he ignored the buzzing to keep looking at the two most important people in his life once upon a time.

“You wanna tell me… What I mean is how the hell… What the fuck is going on?”

“That’s what we were going to ask you. One minute we were in that office building, getting ready to finish the job, the next minute we’re there. Lights are off. The building looked abandoned. Little scary too.”

Oh god, the Snap. From what he heard from the grapevine, there were rumors of attempts to bring people back. No way it was going to work, so Eliot didn’t get his hopes up. Stark and his crazy-assed theories. Maybe not so crazy-assed after all.

All around him, Eliot kept hearing noise, louder and louder, like there were more voices outside, down the hall, down the street. It had turned so quiet after the Snap, with half of every living being gone.

“She’s alright. Sleeping.”

Eliot’s phone had not stopped buzzing, which was starting to drive him crazy.

“What?” he finally said as he answered it. “What?” he said much calmer than the first. “I know. I know Vance. I know.”

“Know what?” Sophie asked.

“They did it.”

“Did what? Because from what I’m seeing, y’all look like you’ve been through hell and back. Nice grey hair there, El.”

“Dammit, Hardison.”

“Were we gone?” Parker questioned, but before Eliot could answer, the door buzzed and kept buzzing until Eliot wrenched the door open.

“Where the hell is Sophie?”

Well, if these two were going to show up unannounced, Nate most certainly had to show up too. Eliot’s heart clenched, knowing right at that moment their lives had just changed, upended, possibly not for the better.

“Nate,” Eliot heard Sophie’s watery cry. 

He knew she had never gotten over his disappearance. Eliot had wanted her to fall into his arms, forget about her past.

“Mommy,” came the little voice from the door. “It’s too loud.”

“I know, sweetheart. We were just…”

Sophie had no words for the little girl clinging to her leg.

“Sophie?”

Oh dammit, of course, Nate didn’t know. Even Sophie didn’t know before the Snap. Shit. 

“Daddy,” the little girl worriedly asked Eliot.

Shit and double shit.

“What?”

Both Parker and Hardison looked at Eliot for answers.

“Honey? Remember?” Sophie crouched down to the girl’s level. “That is Parker and Hardison. Your aunt and uncle. They had to go away. Remember you learned about the Snap in school.”

It had been hard explaining to a four and half-year-old about a bad alien man who had taken half the population away with just the snap of his fingers. This little girl though was way too smart for her own good. She was curious about everything, including the photos that Sophie often thumbed through.

“I don’t get it.”

“Neither do I.”

Sophie ran her hand through the girl’s long curls. “Mommy, don’t cry.”

“I’m sorry, sweet darling Claire. I don’t mean to frighten you.”

“Dad said it’s ok to cry if you’re sad or if you’re happy. Are you sad?”

“No, my dear girl. I’m happy.”

Sophie carefully picked up her daughter and gave her a squeeze. Nate still hadn’t moved from where he had walked into the apartment. Both Parker and Hardison were watching like it was a soap opera, anticipation in their eyes.

“Now where’s Amy? Maybe you can go play with her while the grownups talk?”

“She’s, um, in the bathroom throwing up. I think we scared her a little bit.”

“I’m not scared,” they all could hear her tiny voice from the bathroom off the living area. “Ok, a little.”

Eliot could see Nate’s mind whirling, putting two and two together and coming up with five instead of four, emotions flying around in that big brain of his instead of just thinking for one damn minute.

“I just, I should probably go. It looks like…”

“Nathan Ford, you sit your ass down on that sofa this instant.”

“Language,” Claire pipped up.

“Swear jar,” Eliot added.

Parker smirked while Hardison snorted.

Claire whispered into her mother’s ear. The two of them were having an almost silent conversation, much like she and Nate would often have before the Snap.

“Claire, what would you like to say,” Sophie started.

“I don’t know,” she answered back, starting to be very silly.

“So, you know who they are, right?”

“Yeah. That’s Parker.” Claire pointed to Parker. “She’s my aunt. I mean, not related because she’s not Mommy’s real sister, but she is.”

“And?”

“That’s Hardison. He’s my uncle. Dad says he’s the smartest man in the world. And he was a pain in Dad’s bum.”

She giggled at that statement.

“Yeah, well. Pretty accurate description,” Hardison answered back.

If Eliot’s heart had stopped beating once or twice or a dozen times since he walked back into this apartment, he bet by what he was seeing that Nate hadn’t taken more than a breath or two either. The man was looking mighty pale. Eliot just hoped that he didn’t run. He was in no condition to track down the older man, even if he hadn’t aged the five years. Eliot had aged, more than he’d like to admit.

“And dat’s Nate.”

Both Eliot and Sophie had worked with Claire with her speech. She sometimes reverted if she was tired or very excited. She looked to be both right about then.

“And?”

Claire looked apprehensive. Sophie had explained it all to her. That Nate was her real dad. That he disappeared in the Snap. That Eliot could be her dad for as long as she liked. Or her friend. Or a combination of the two. Whatever she liked. She had adopted calling him dad from the day she could talk, and he hadn’t corrected her.

“He’s my dad too.”

A little sob escaped from Nate, his body sagging to the door.

“Yep, pretty obvious. Girl has some Nate hair going and those eyes. Totally Nate’s.”

Hardison was right. Too many people had mistaken Claire for his since they both had blue eyes. But Eliot’s were a different shade and shape. Claire had her dad’s eyes exactly. And his brain. Sophie still could not wrap her mind around that one. She had hoped that the girl would be more like her. Genetics did play a role in those things.

“I didn’t know, Nate. I swear.”

Nate slid to the floor, tears streaming down his face. Hardison wiped a few off his face while Parker tried to blink away the ones that had appeared suddenly.

“Ok, so now everybody’s cryin’. Mommy, why?”

“Because we are all happy that you’re here.”

“Does that mean I get cake?”

Claire wiggled out of her mother’s arms and inched her way over to Nate.

“Here. When I’m sad, I hug this.”

“Mr. Bunny.”

No one had noticed that Claire was holding Parker’s Mr. Bunny in her arms when she came out of her room. Or maybe Parker did and didn’t want to ruin the moment. Nate took a shuddering breath and held out his hand for the stuffed bunny.

“Soft,” Nate barely was able to get out.

“I like his ears.”

“I like his ears too,” Parker said as she came closer to Eliot. “Nice hair, Sparky.”

Eliot had cut his hair short in those years after the Snap. He had needed a change, to not remind him of what he had lost. Reinventing himself had taken a lot of time and patience. Now it all had come crumbling down.

Sophie couldn’t look directly at him, all eyes on Nate and how he was reacting to the fact that he now had a young child that could walk and talk.

Hardison finally made his way over to Eliot, standing beside him. Putting his hand out like he was going to shake it; Eliot instead pulled the man in for a bone-crushing hug. Parker joined it soon after, sobbing into the front of Hardison’s shirt. Sophie knelt in front of Nate, talking softly to Claire. She took the bunny and leapt up, running to the door of the bathroom to talk to Amy, who still hadn’t come out of her hiding place. Nate didn’t manage to get up off the floor but sunk into Sophie’s arms. Over Nate’s shoulder, Sophie smiled back at Eliot, who was still enveloped in Hardison and Parker’s embraces.

Oh, what could have been. And what was. It all would change now. Everything. 


	3. Nate and Eliot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nate and Eliot paired together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do hope I've gotten the timeline down correctly for the Marvel-verse. It's been a while since I watched Endgame.

Chapter Three—Nate and Eliot

“Hardison, I need an ETA on the mark. Hardison? Dammit, Hardison.”

Nate could tell that Eliot was irked that the younger man didn’t answer when he spoke. He’d chastised Hardison many times when the man was younger.

“Nate, do you have eyes on the mark?”

“Nothing. Listen, Eliot. If you need to regroup.”

“Nope. Parker? Got anything?”

The comms were silent, which was weird. Hardison was never silent on a job unless Eliot told him to shut the hell up. And even then, he could sometimes hear the man tapping away at his computer.

“Eliot, abandon the plan. We need to find the others. They’ve been compromised.”

That was the only explanation as to why the other three were not on comms. This was supposed to be an easy con. Parker had worked out all the specifics. Nate had been happy to lend a hand with Parker being in charge. It felt good to not be the one who had to worry about all the pieces on the board. He was just a piece who periodically played in their playground. He and Sophie liked it that way. Nate could keep his sanity intact and the other three could take down the bad guys as they saw fit.

Nate’s phone went off with an annoying buzzing sound. He thought he had turned it off because the comms were working. With no bad weather in sight, he angrily switched on his phone.

“Oh shit,” he said as he saw what was flashing on the screen. “Eliot, back to the van. Now.”

For a moment there, Nate thought he’d lost Eliot too, but he finally answered with a grunt, followed by a string of curse words a mile long. He must have seen the text also.

Ducking here and there to not be noticed by anyone, Nate made it back to the van as quickly as he could. Eliot wasn’t far behind.

“You wanna tell me what this means?”

Off in the distance, a plane rumbled. Planes were never that low over land nor did they turn to the side like that. Before Nate could even say anything, an explosion occurred. Eliot grabbed Nate to pull him down just in case debris rained down on them.

“Lost the pilot. Dammit.”

Eliot typed frantically on his phone as Nate attempted to call the other three. No signal. No voicemail. Nothing. 

“Where are they, Eliot? Where are they?”

“Nate, they’re not…”

Another crash off in the distance. It sounded like a multiple car crash from the sound of it.

“They’re gone, Nate. That’s just it. They’re gone. We’ll regroup and figure this out.”

**Five years later:**

“We’ll regroup and figure this out.”

“How?”

“Nate. Gotta give me a minute here.”

Nate had given Eliot twenty minutes to get them out of this sticky situation.

“There’s guys. With guns. If you don’t have an exit strategy, I suggest we…”

“Your suggestion is what got us into this mess in the first place. We’re pinned down. I can’t just wave a magic wand and make them disappear.”

Nate grimaced at Eliot’s comment. Nate had wished with all his might that the Snap had taken all the bad guys and left the good ones intact. It was non-discriminant. Whatever people who had been left didn’t all of a sudden change the way they operated. There wasn’t some “come to Jesus” moment for most people. You either followed the law or you didn’t. People still needed their help. He and Eliot just had to go about it a different way. With a different team.

“Told you this wasn’t gonna work.”

“Shut up, Quinn. Focus on the plan.”

At least Quinn wasn’t pinned down by gunfire. So why wasn’t he making his way to save their asses?

“Quinn, so help me, you better have a good excuse as to why you’re not here yet.”

“They’re stopping everyone. Jesus, get out of the way,” Eliot heard Quinn yell.

“Tara, ETA, and tell me it’s soon?” Nate wondered. Their other errant teammate.

“Kinda busy here.”

Nate could hear fighting through her comm. This job had turned into a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

“I could just come in and save your sorry asses.”

“Shut up, Sterling,” both Eliot and Nate yelled.

“That’s the thanks I get. Very well.”

“Just finish your part.” He was too far away anyway.

The bullets that had been whizzing over their heads briefly stopped to start up again once whoever was firing reloaded.

“Tell me why this was a good idea?” Eliot asked him, ducking a bit more to the ground.

It wasn’t a good idea. Nothing that had happened over the last five years was a good idea. Nate should have taken all that had happened after the Snap as a sign that he should retire for good. Instead, he’d been pulled back in by these idiots to right some wrongs that had happened. What was worse was the fact that it was government sanctioned. He promised himself he’d never work for anyone but himself, but now here he was leading this crazy crew into a dangerous situation, possibly to get their asses shot in the process. Well, probably only Eliot and him since the others weren’t in the same location.

“You’re very judgy today.”

Eliot rolled his eyes at his closest friend, hand now closed over the only weapon that had ammo.

“Kinda get pissed off when I get pinned down by someone’s mistakes.”

Nate watched through the upper windows as the sun was setting off in the distance. The colors were a brilliant orange, yellow and blue. He thought back briefly to that plane crash that had happened right after the Snap, about how he and Eliot had worked their way over to the crash site, saving a few people that had survived. There wasn’t much else they could do since Sophie, Parker, and Hardison were just gone. Saving strangers, people who didn’t deserve what had happened, was something. 

After that, Nate had buried himself so far in a bottle, it was hard to climb out. Only Eliot practically beating him up one day had pulled him out. Two broken ribs later (and a detox), Nate was, unfortunately, stone-cold sober and looking for a fight. He couldn’t tell Eliot that he was grateful for the fight that he had started with the hitter. Nate took full blame for throwing the first punch. Hey, it was a pretty good punch for a drunk on a binger. Eliot had even commented one time that Nate had gotten a good one in. There were skirmishes after that epic fight, but no one had broken any bones. Maybe a little blood, but no bones.

Nate hadn’t understood why the two of them had to stick together. Both were miserable, rotten, awful people together. If they had split apart, would either one of them found any peace? Nate could still hear Sophie’s voice in his head tell him that they fully deserved each other. This love/hate thing they had going had almost killed both of them on occasion. 

It wasn’t sexual at all (yeah, who was he fooling). Neither one had sought that kind of comfort. At least from each other. Thank goodness for that because that would have put them both over the edge for good. 

As Nate sat beside Eliot, wondering if the rest of the team was going to show up to pull them out of this shitshow, Nate thought why didn’t he think of Eliot that way? Eliot obviously had loved both Parker and Hardison in every way possible. Nate had never even thought about Eliot in that way until he had mentioned it a mere week before when this job had started. The argument they had right before leaving had sent Nate into a tailspin, making him start to re-evaluate a lot of what was going on in his life. 

He was a hermit. He had no friends other than Eliot, pushed everyone away who tried to come to his aid. He barely tolerated the man next to him, and when he meant barely, that was saying something. The others he barked orders, yelled at them constantly, which meant they all disappeared once the job was done. Working together for three years hadn’t made any of them closer, even Sterling. Damn, the man had tried to tell Nate that he was a miserable son of a bitch. Nate had admitted it fully and told him to go away.

The fight that he and Eliot had gotten into had dug too deep this time. He was running out of time, age-wise and temperament-wise. That bit of soul that he had left after leaving the job for the first time had withered away into nothing. In some ways, sitting beside Eliot right then, this was their watershed moment. It was either get shot up like Butch and Sundance, going out in a blaze of glory. Or it was going to be taking that one last bender, drinking himself into oblivion. Could Eliot give him a third choice?

“You’re thinking way too hard over there.”

“Options. None of them good.”

A bullet embedded itself into a piece of wood mere inches from his head.

“If you have a plan, now would be the time to reveal it.”

Shoulder to shoulder, Nate could feel the heat radiating off of Eliot. There wasn’t fear in Eliot’s eyes, just a bit of resignation at the fact that maybe this time they’d pushed their luck a bit too far.

“I miss them. I miss the way we were before all this bullshit happened.”

“Oh, geez. Now I do think we’re gonna die. Don’t matter.”

Why didn’t it matter? Did Nate not matter to Eliot? Had his hopes and dreams died five years ago? Nate felt like his had. Instead of telling Eliot there was a way out, that they’d make it out if Quinn got there in time, that all they needed to do was wait it out or somehow make their way to another part of the warehouse. All he could think to do was take hold of Eliot’s hand, interlacing his fingers with Eliot’s strong ones, covered with whatever shit that they had encountered in that warehouse. If they were going to die, and it looked as if that was going to be the case, why not go out with a bang?

“Not what I expected,” was all Eliot could say as Nate turned his head to look directly in Eliot’s eyes.

“Yeah, and I’m one sorry son of a bitch.”

The dirty wooden crates dug into his back while the cold, hard concrete made it so difficult to even sit still but sit still Nate did. 

“Well, are you gonna punch me or kiss me because right now, either one is a better idea than just sittin’ here staring at each other.”

Instead, Nate turned his head to listen to the near silence that had suddenly enveloped the warehouse.

“Run out of bullets?”

“They were armed to the teeth,” Eliot commented, but he still hadn’t pulled his hand out of Nate’s. “Guys like these just don’t run out of bullets.”

“Previous engagement?”

“Dammit, Nate. Why do you always gotta joke about this shit?”

“Because Hardison isn’t here to piss you off?”

And Parker wasn’t there to poke him or Sophie wasn’t there to psychoanalyze him or mind-control him to make her tea.

There wasn’t an inch between their faces when Nate first heard the voice. Was he going crazy? Losing his ever-living mind finally? Tara had a bet going with the others that Nate was going to lose it and bring them all down. He wondered why she stayed. The money was good she had answered back. It wasn’t that good.

“Where are you guys? Nate? Eliot?”

“I must be dead. Hardison’s voice is coming in loud and clear.”

Nate hadn’t felt like they were both dead. Near-death with all those bullets, which still had not started up again.

“They dead. Oh no. We’re too late. They gotta be dead.”

“They’re not dead,” Parker grumped back. “I can feel it.”

“Don’t tell me that you came back with some kind of superpowers because that would be rather freaky.”

That wasn’t in their heads or their comms. Someone was playing a trick on them.

“Nate? Eliot? I didn’t just stop three people with more firepower than god to have the both of you dead.”

Sophie. Shit.

“We’re dead.”

“Well, I mean, it’s possible.”

“What the fuck? Wherever you’re hiding, come out.” That was Quinn. “And it was me who dealt with those assholes. Dipshits, you won’t believe who I found.”

“Quinn hallucinating too?”

“Nah, I’m thinking they’re playing some kind of prank on us.”

“Oh, there you are.”

Nate and Eliot looked up to see Parker, the light surrounding her blonde hair like a halo.

“Definitely dead,” both of them said in unison.

Nate still had not let go of Eliot’s hand.

“Just snapped is all. Or whatever the kids are calling it. Did you guys hear?” Hardison asked as he came up behind Parker.

“Oh, I guess they did not,” Sophie said as she came around a corner. “Oh. Did we interrupt something?”

“Dying. Possibly.”

“Just as long as it isn’t plan M. Oh, man was that plan M before? ‘Cause I don’t feel dead.”

Nate looked at Eliot and smiled. Eliot snorted, then started to giggle. Nate couldn’t hold it in any longer and started to laugh so hard, his side hurt.

“Y’all crazy. We’re back.”

Hardison was right. They were back. No one was dead.

“I think they’ve gone around the bend.”

“Have you two been drinking?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've only written three chapters so far. And there are more pairings to write!


	4. Sophie and Hardison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophie and Hardison survived the Snap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so y'all know, I am embellishing in this chapter big time. Making assumptions and that kind of thing. There are so many things we don't know about what happened after the Snap, what was available and what was happening behind the scenes. Work with me here, folks.

Chapter Four—Sophie and Hardison

“I hate this van.”

“Excuse you?”

“Hardison, over all the years that we’ve worked together, have you once ever …”

“Ever what? It’s clean.”

“—ish.”

“Hey, you sit here on your ass all day and night and not get a couple wrappers here and there.”

“It’s just it always smells like orange soda. I mean, there’s cherry, grape.”

“Girl, those are not good flavors.”

Sophie hated being benched on this one. She’d begged Nate, then Parker, telling them that she could transform herself into someone new. Neither believed her. Even with Parker being in charge now, there was no convincing the younger woman that Sophie could pull it off.

“You know, if you hadn’t already been blown?”

Sophie choked on her iced tea.

“Well, excuse me for actually trying to earn a living.”

Sophie threw her hands up in the air in disgust. Why wouldn’t any of them understand that it wasn’t intentional. Well, maybe just a bit intentional. Who was she to know that one of her old marks would be in that black book?

“A living?” Nate mumbled.

“We work hard for a living,” Parker sang out. “Hard for a living.”

“Geez, Parker. Could you not? I’m trying to concentrate here.”

“Ok, so I’m not perfect.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” Nate flirted back.

“Alright. None of that nonsense you two. You’d think after all these years.”

Sophie lightly tapped Hardison on the arm. “So says the man who gave Parker that necklace.”

“That he stole.”

“I’ll have you know I worked hard to get that necklace.”

“Alright guys, flirting aside, the mark is coming out.”

Nate had worked his way into the mark’s graces, so now all they had to do was finish the job so that their client could get his property back.

“Guess that means I’ll flirt with y’all later.”

Eliot snorted back but didn’t continue the conversation. Sophie didn’t exactly know what was up between the three, but she bet that since all Eliot’s stuff was now at the Brew Pub, then everything was good. She would never tell anyone how to live their lives. Hell, look at what she and Nate had gone through for so many years? Even confessing to Maggie that they flirted hadn’t made her feel much better about her part in their early encounters.

Sophie sat watching Hardison tap away at the computer while she sighed in resignation that she was literally stuck in a boring van. Kudos to Hardison, who over the years had to endure all their ramblings while they worked their magic on a mark.

“What the heck was that?” Hardison said as he started to type a bit more furiously.

“Guys, out, now. Something’s wrong. Sophie, Hardison, meet us at the back exit. We’re going to need a quick extraction,” Nate urged them, voice panicked.

Sophie couldn’t hear Eliot or Parker at all but figured that they were trying quickly to make their exits to meet up with Nate. Peeling out of their out of the way parking spot, Sophie floored it to make it back to their rendezvous spot as fast as she could.

“Lost both Eliot and Parker’s signals. Nate, Nate, where are they?” Sophie could hear Hardison yell in the back.

Screeching to a halt, Sophie looked out at Nate running to the van. Only he didn’t make it. Hardison had made them watch that Matrix movie, where everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion. Nate was running straight to them, not worrying about if someone was going to shoot at him. Only he started to disintegrate right in front of her. 

“Hardison,” Sophie yelled. 

She was up and out of her seat, wrenching the door open. She didn’t even make it ten feet before Nate had completely disappeared. His eyes were directly on hers the whole time.

“Holy shit,” Hardison cried out. “What just happened?”

“Nate.”

**Five years later:**

“That is not gonna work.”

“I do believe it will.”

“Let me just show you something.”

Hardison passed the tablet that he had just tapped out a response to hand it to Sophie.

“Ok, so, see right here.”

Sophie tapped another part of the tablet.

“Aren’t you adorable.”

Sophie and Hardison walked down the corridors of a building, people streaming by on either side.

“I don’t care if you’re the liaison of the freakin’ queen, which you are not by the way. This is not going to fly with the big guy.”

Sophie stopped directly in front of Hardison, hoping that he’d understand why she had to do what she had to do.

“They put me in charge.”

“Why in hell that happened, I have no idea.”

“Why is everyone rushing here and there? Don’t any of you have jobs to do?”

“Yes ma’am,” one of the younger workers called out.

“Ma’am?”

Sophie didn’t feel that old. This job certainly kept her busy.

“Mrs. Ford. It’s been level two for almost an hour.” She and Hardison had been in a meeting and had explicitly told her secretary not to disturb them unless the world was coming to an end.

“Shit,” Hardison mumbled out.

“Well, remember the last time it was level two.”

“Come on. Let’s figure out why they all have their panties in a bunch.”

Sophie followed Hardison down the corridor to her office. She’d picked out the biggest, most luxurious office that she could find once she was asked to join this group. 

“There must be a reason why we can’t acquire that…”

“Hardison, just figure out why there’s a level two.”

As Sophie tapped on her phone, attempting to get in touch with her boss, she noticed that there were at least ten texts, each popping up when she turned her phone on.

“You really need to fix the battery in this thing,” Sophie called out while Hardison was turning on the television.

“Oh no,” Sophie shouted as she finally read the texts from her boss. “Pepper says… What the hell is going on, Hardison? Full scale invasion. That is not a level two.”

Hardison agreed as he shook his head. “Full scale invasion. Shit.”

“I thought you had monitors.”

“I did,” Hardison growled out. “If the boss knew…”

Sophie gripped the edge of her desk as she watched was what playing out on their television. It wasn’t what everyone else could watch. Hardison had tapped into War Machine’s suit to see the action.

“What are we going to do?”

“Order an evacuation.”

“Get on it. Take it to level one. Get everyone out of here and down into the bunker.”

“Sophie, it won’t matter if it’s Thanos coming to finish us off.”

“Just do it.”

How she and Hardison had come to be working for Pepper Potts and Stark Industries was long and convoluted and quite the interesting story if one had hours to spend on hearing the facts. Or embellishments if it was her telling it. She guessed it was better having the two of them on the side of good instead of out there stealing anything that wasn’t bolted to the ground. 

Sophie thought about slipping off her heels and just kicking back to watch the end of the world as they knew it. There were rumors and emails and an occasional text that Tony and the rest of them were planning something big. Enough acquisitions had gone through Hardison for Sophie to know the technology that Stark had requisitioned wasn’t just for him and his “projects” to play with on an off day.

Hardison had speculated several times that Tony and Bruce were building something big, possibly to go after Thanos. Even Hardison couldn’t hack into the plans of what they were doing since Tony kept all the information either in his own brain or on a dedicated server. The man had even asked Hardison for advice once or twice, which sent Hardison over the edge, hoping to get to work on their project. No dice. 

“Everyone in the bunker?” Sophie asked as Hardison re-entered the room.

“Everyone except a few guards, who are waiting on us to close the damn doors. Let’s go.”

Sophie kept her eyes glued to the screen, watching as Rhodes worked with the others, doing as much damage as he could. 

“What the hell? Do you know if there are any wizards left because those certainly look like…” Hardison started. “Oh my god, that’s Stephen Strange. Wakandan army. Black Panther. Stark did it. They reversed the Snap. Soph, we…”

“They have to win first.”

Sophie watched in fascination as the battle raged. The signal cut out at the end. Rhodes must have taken off his helmet because they couldn’t see anything else.

“Are you sure, Hardison? Did he just bring back…”

Sophie looked around her office, touching the picture on her desk of all of them, in better times. She turned her wedding ring back and forth, hoping against hope that it was all true and they weren’t going to get blown up in the next few minutes.

It had taken both Hardison and herself years to move on, to make lives for themselves, but neither had moved on that much. They had taken to living in the same house, traveling together when work demanded it, eating meals together. There was nothing romantic ever, but they were each other’s lifelines. Hardison had pushed her to start dating again, to get out there. She scoffed at that nonsense and tried to set him up with a woman down the hall. 

“How are we going to find them? The world is so different. How is this going to work?”

Just then Sophie’s phone buzzed again.

“Is it…”

“No, no. Dammit. Gather the rest of them. Let them out of the bunker. Tony’s dead. Dammit, Tony’s dead.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing. I’ve checked everything that I know. I guess we just gotta give it time.”

“It’s been three days.”

“Remember, we’re in New York right now. When the Snap happened, we were in Portland.”

“You’ve tried every number.”

“Yes.

“Every alias.”

“Yes.”

“Traffic cameras.”

“Woman, there is no way I can check every single traffic camera between here and Portland.”

“How will they know where we are?”

That had been nagging Sophie since it all had happened. Both she and Hardison were busy with their own jobs, as grim as they were at the moment. They finally had gotten a few hours off. All Sophie wanted to do was bury her head under the blankets and not get up for a few weeks. At least now the memorial service had been set up for Tony. That was off her plate.

“What if they didn’t come back?” Sophie cried as Hardison hugged her tight.

“They have to, you know. Too stubborn to not. I can just hear them now. Wondering what the hell happened. Stealing cars and clothes and identities. Only they didn’t steal anything I can trace.”

“That would be Parker for you.”

“Here,” Hardison said as he handed her a comm. “You never know.”

“But you checked. I did too. You would have to have the right frequency.”

Hardison took her arms in his large hands, urging her to look up at him.

“You know those three. No matter what, we’re gonna find out what happened to them.”

“Let’s go. My feet hurt. My head hurts.”

There were celebrations everywhere. Governments were attempting to figure out where to put all the people who came back since systems had been shrunk to not handle so many people at once. Sophie and Hardison had been damn lucky that the house they had settled in had actually been owned by Eliot, so there was no one who tried to come claim it in the last few days. 

“So, what do we do? Hope they call?”

Hardison didn’t have any answers as they pulled up to their house. It would be nice to get a full night’s sleep finally, having been up almost constantly either trying to find the other three or supporting anyone who needed help. Loved ones appearing out of thin air was taxing to all the employees at Stark Industries. Their skeleton crew had now become a full contingent of people willing to start work again. Sophie didn’t even know where to start.

No lights were on in the house, but Sophie felt Hardison pull up, startled by something.

“Door’s been jimmied.”

“Security system?”

“Off.”

“Around the back. I’ll go in the front. Be careful.”

Sophie hoped and wished that this was the other three, but how could it be? Wouldn’t they warn either her or Hardison? The small gun she had taken to carrying with her at all times came out of her purse. Being careful had been their motto since the Snap. Their house was usually locked down tight.

Flicking the nearest light on, the sight before Sophie was something to behold. Nate lay on the sofa, snoring away while Parker was curled in a chair. Eliot was nowhere to be seen.

“Ow, ow, ow. Would you be careful?”

That had to be Eliot. Hardison wouldn’t grump at just anyone.

“Dammit, Hardison.”

“Oh, hey, Sophie.”

Parker had woken up, stretching her arms over her head.

“Parker? Oh sweetie.”

Eliot appeared with Hardison right behind him.

“See? She’s right here.”

Hardison enveloped Parker in a big hug while Eliot leaned his head into his back. Sophie couldn’t stop the tears from falling. They were all alive and well. Nate had startled awake at the noises that Hardison was making, not able to hold in his emotions any longer. The man did cry at every sad movie ever made.

“Hey, you made it back?” Nate said to her. “We didn’t know exactly where you were. Eliot found out from a few of his buddies that you were working…”

It had taken Sophie ten steps to Nate, to crush him into the sofa cushions. It wasn’t like that kiss he’d given her on The Maltese Falcon job, which was angst and anger with a bit of blood all rolled into one. It wasn’t like that memorable kiss he’d given her after coming back from his voyage of discovery, all wet from the rain. He was lucky she hadn’t stripped him bare just by being in his presence. He wasn’t supposed to be alive. None of them were. She didn’t care what he smelled like because he certainly needed a shower and a change of clothes. He still had on the ones from the day he was snapped from existence. 

The other three didn’t care because they were all hugging each other so tight, Sophie didn’t know where one started, and the other ones ended. 

“You’re alive,” was the only thing she could get out, taking his face in her hands.

“You could have left some breadcrumbs.”

“Seriously?” Sophie heard Hardison say behind her. “Hey, girl is running a big company now.”

“Ok, are the two of you living together?” Eliot asked.

“Well, what else were we to do?” Sophie answered back, but still not wanting to take her eyes off Nate.

She hadn’t realized that her skirt was hiked up to her thighs as she straddled Nate’s lap. His ears had turned a wonderful shade of pink.

“I mean if you did, you know, something, we’d be ok with it, but it’s kinda weird and crazy.”

Parker rambled for a few more minutes while Hardison buried his face in her hair and held onto Eliot for dear life.

“You do understand that nothing untoward happened.”

“Five years. You could have moved on.”

“Too busy. Besides, on the off chance things would be reversed.”

“I’m here.”

“You did what?” Sophie heard Eliot screech. “This is why I was needed.”

“Was it fun?” Parker asked.

“Nah. Well, maybe a tiny bit.”

Five years. Five years too long. Five years of spinning and spinning until her head hurt some nights. Sophie grabbed Nate’s head and moved in for another one of those kisses to end all kisses. All she heard in the background was the other three comment that they were going to vacate the living room for somewhere more private. Good for them.


End file.
